Visit Knoxville celebrated its fifth anniversary Friday, two days after the actual date but with about 100 tourism partners, staff and public officials present at its Gay Street office.

"We've always been the convention and visitors’ bureau,” said Kim Bumpas, Visit Knoxville president. “That’s been around for 30 years."

But it has changed names several times, and “rebirthed” as Visit Knoxville in 2012, she said. That’s also the year Bumpas took over.

Bumpas points to several indices to show Visit Knoxville’s success: local hotel/motel tax receipts have grown 40 percent since 2012 to almost $8 million annually; downtown hotel occupancy is up 24 percent in that time; and visitors spent more than $1 billion in Knox County during both 2015 and 2016, she said.

Visit Knoxville board member Rick Ennett and his wife Alta share a bite to eat during Visit Knoxville’s fifth anniversary celebration at the Knoxville Visitor Center on Friday, November 3, 2017. Shawn MIllsaps/Special to the News Sentinel

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Those numbers stem from many factors, not just Visit Knoxville’s impact, Bumpas acknowledges. But all have risen in sync with the agency’s developing strategies for the past five years, she said.

Last year, Visit Knoxville gave out nearly 200,000 visitor guides, and had more than 23,000 walk-ins at the visitor center, according to its annual report.

The agency’s budget has grown from less than $4 million in 2012 to $4.6 million in the past fiscal year, with $5.2 million expected this year, Bumpas said. Of that, $3.2 million came from the hotel/motel tax. Most of the rest of the budget comes from marketing partnerships, she said.

Director of Visitor Services Heather Fawver said volunteers have put in more than 2,700 hours for Visit Knoxville since Jan. 1. She recognized the top two volunteers: Barbara Boulton, who has given more than 40 hours this year; and Susie Cataldi, with more than 88 hours.

A decade ago, downtown Knoxville didn’t have much in the way of restaurants, hotels and attractions to offer visitors, but within the last five years particularly that has really changed, Bumpas said.

"It’s been an explosion of everything good coming together at the right moment,” she said. Now, the agency has to get the word out.

"We’re hosting travel writers in a weekly basis," Bumpas said.

In 2014, the agency formed a local film office, and Bumpas wants to push that in coming years. Already in the past year, Knoxville saw $2.5 million spent on film production locally, according to Visit Knoxville’s annual report.

Last year, a local sports commission formed, seeking to attract events such as basketball and volleyball tournaments to the Knoxville Convention Center, Bumpas said. Fishing and bicycling events are also in the works.

The agency’s sales and marketing “road map” for next year anticipates setting a timeline for a second staffed visitor center.

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Guests turn out for Visit Knoxville’s fifth anniversary celebration at the Knoxville Visitor Center on Friday, November 3, 2017.(Photo: Shawn MIllsaps/Special to the News Sentinel)

The marketing plan targets women, ages 35 to 64, emphasizing “outdoor enthusiasts” and festival-goers. Target areas are those cities which provided Visit Knoxville’s biggest number of website visits. Cities elsewhere in Tennessee, Kentucky, and North and South Carolina are on the list, but so are Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth.